I shot this from where we were set up in Watsonville Plaza as part of the diabetes health fair.

Updated: Robert is fine. He called this morning. His house is surrounded by strawberry fields. He helped a neighbor evacuate and the two of them had fire on both sides when they were leaving the house.

Richard and I took 1101 to Watsonville yesterday to take part in a diabetes health fair put on by the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust at the farmer’s market in downtown Watsonville. We talked with a lot of great people, gave away loads of crayons and hero cards (and donated the rest to the Diabetes Health Center) and ate some great food.

On the way over, I skirted the edge of the Trabing Fire, set intentionally or unintentionally by some motorist on Highway 1. The fire blew smoke over Watsonville and dropped ash in the plaza. I’ll be calling Robert with 1110, who I spoke with briefly and who said the fire was near his place. We’re hoping for the best.

Here’s a shot of one of the many kids who spent time in the car.

We’re taking 1101 to Watsonville tomorrow to be part of a diabetes health fair sponsored by the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust. We’ll have some of the World Diabetes Day crayons to give out and hero cards, naturally.

The Diabetes Fair will be part of the Watsonville farmer’s market on the plaza in downtown. We’ll be on site from 3-7 p.m. If you’re in the area, drop by and say “howdy”.

Ruth with CPMG sent me a link to her Flickr photo set shot as we were setting everything up for the June 8 public event with the International Diabetes Federation at The Cannery on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.

You can check out the shots here. Lane and Mitch, who were shooting for the IDF, should have some shots online shortly.

More news to come…

We loaned Stephan one of our race radios for his assault on the Baja 500…on a motorcycle. Here’s his report.

Here is a YouTube video that gives a pretty good taste of the race (at least at the starting line). Note in the opening seconds of the video, you can see yours truly desperately trying to start my bike at the starting line.

Hello again,
Well, we made it back…alive.

To those of you who attempted to track my progress, you may have noticed that my tracker stopped somewhere around mile 13. This is, as far as I can figure, about the time I did a 37 mph face plant on a blind corner courtesy of a class 25 ATV. The crash seemed to have knocked out my tracker, as well as much of my naïve optimism. It just got better from there…

It was the hottest day of the year up on the high desert, and according to several veterans, one of the hardest courses they had seen. I was equipped with a 2 liter camelback, which according to a friendly Mexican guy who gave me water, was about half as big as necessary. Dehydration was the word of the day (repeating in my head). Anyway, things were going pretty well, until the trophy trucks caught up to me. For those of you who don’t know, a trophy truck is an 800+ horsepower million dollar race truck (one was clocked at 110 mph on a river bed this year). They don’t really have a lot of patience for motorcyclists. Luckily, I was warned off the track by a panicked pit crew, and a film helicopter, and avoided being squished by one of the most impressive feats of engineering and horsepower I have ever seen.

After the trophy trucks went by, I continued on my merry way, climbing over an exhausting boulder strewn rock summit, and dropped into a dried lakebed for several hours of wonderful deep silt riding (which I really can’t recommend highly enough). I still had reasonably high (if somewhat delusional) expectations, until I hit the cactus.

Everything in the desert seems to have thorns, and if you run into some of them at 40 mph, it does have adverse affects. My right hand swelled into something resembling a guava with finger tips. I made it another 10 miles, when I decided that laying down under a tree in the 105 degree heat was a fine idea. It was the most peaceful place I had ever been. Everything seemed fine, until a desert lady/vision appeared with several bottles of water and said “you don’t look too good son”. I assured her that I was fit as a fiddle, and everything was going according to plan, and if she had an extra gallon of water, I would be back in the race. She didn’t.

Well, to make a long story short, I made it to mile 232 before nightfall and my better judgment took over. I ceded the race to the desert and vowed to return next year with more water and a little more updated motorcycle.

Thank you to those of you who were concerned about my well being.

The hardest thing I have ever done, and truly a great adventure.

Stephan

I picked up the hero cards that Roxanne designed from Business With Pleasure today and the response has been great. Pretty much the first thing everyone says is “Coooooooool.” Then I get to say “As a matter of fact, I am a race car driver.”

We’ve got 5,000 and will be autographing them this Sunday at the International Diabetes Federation public event at The Cannery on Fisherman’s Wharf from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you’re in the area, come on by.

Check out the PDF version of the back of the card.

The production on this piece Race Dezert is actually pretty good compared to a lot of work out there. Don’t blink or you’ll miss us.

Click here or on the image to watch the video.

Amy Tenderich writes one of the most informative blog in diabetes-related issues - Diabetes Mine. I wanted to thank her for mentioning our June 8 event at The Cannery on Fisherman’s Wharf…

Desert Dingo Racing — Jim Graham and his diabetic Desert Dingo Racing team will make a Sunday appearance at San Francisco’s famous Fisherman’s Wharf. They’ll be autographing “hero cards” featuring photos of their 1969 VW Beetle decorated with warning signs of diabetes on the back. The IDF will be handing out boxes of crayons that also have the warning signs printed on them, and a couple of companies will be offering free diabetes screening.

Thanks to Gary with BRN for linking (”CHECK OUT THE AMAZING Desert Dingo Racing Team CLASS 11 American Desert Racing Team CLICK HERE –CLICK HERE–CLICK HERE”) to us. We’ve got a little suspension work to do, but we’ll be back in the race at the SNORE KC Hilites Midnight Special Aug. 8-10.

Several DDR members were tracking the Baja 500, following BRN’s Twitter feed, IRC’s real time GPS tracking and Weatherman on the radio.

Kudos to JR of Team Cold Forged (#1102) and the Stock Bug Coalition for putting up the Midnight Challenge purse.

I’m sure it’ll be ready by next Sunday*

INTERNATIONAL DIABETES FEDERATION and DESERT DINGO RACING HOST DIABETES AWARENESS EVENT ON FISHERMAN’S WHARF

June 8 event will promote the theme of this year’s World Diabetes Day campaign and showcase Desert Dingo Racing’s ‘World Diabetes Day” Baja 1000 race VW

SAN FRANCISCO, June 1, 2008 – The International Diabetes Federation (IDF), its World Diabetes Day official partners and Desert Dingo Racing will co-sponsor a public event at The Cannery on Fisherman’s Wharf on Sunday, June 8 to promote diabetes awareness and education.

The Federation will be distributing World Diabetes Day (WDD) material to draw attention to diabetes in children and inform people of the warning signs of diabetes. Desert Dingo Racing will have its 1969 VW Beetle (the World Diabetes Day car), which raced the 2007 Baja 1000, and team drivers will be on hand to sign hero cards, which also have the warning signs of diabetes printed on them.

Read the entire press release here.

* Relax. This is 1117, which I’m painting at my leisure. 1101 is dialed.

P.S. This is what it looks like when you steal a race motorcycle at yesterday’s Baja 500, throw it in the back of your pickup and tear off into the night, but forget to turn off the GPS transponder.